Lava Lite's New Website & The NEW Heritage Collection

[Dr. WHAT?!]

http://www.lavalamp.com/

The new Heritage Collection will be available to buy 10/28

**Updated the Heritage Collection will be released today on LavaLite Website at 10am CST. Heres a sneak peak!

*** http://lavalamp.com/heritage-collection ***

[Brad]

thanks, joanne.  i've run the lamp for 4 days before but didn't let it simmer afterward.  i guess i can try that to see if it helps.

Joanne said:

Sorry Brad

I would contact LL about any problems anyone has with their grandes. I was told to run mine for 4 days just turning it down to "simmer" at night . then leave it off for a day and try it after that . It might work for yours .

dang, sorry to hear.
Jeff said:

Welp...I didn't make it to 2 cycles....its pea shootin' tonight :(

[Joanne]

Aww crap Jeff I really am sorry

[Jeff]

These things are weird.....happened to glance up from what I was working on in the computer and was like...whoa...its flowing!!  Its like the lamp suddenly decided to "kick in" or something. 

[ChuckM]

I just got a new black wizard... the globe has been heating for a few hours. It is flowing but it is pretty slow going. I will cycle it to see if it gets better. The black base and cap are nice... seems like a good approximation of the black wizard I recently bought from crashsundayguy! I hate to think, though, that the answer will be to put a gookit globe on this. I have several... and I may even get another fast glitter from Kirk for this! We shall see...

[Rodrigo]

Sorry to hear that, but mine did that for like two cycles after it stopped flowing. It would randomly flow for 5 minutes every hour or two, sometimes. But after another two cycles of doing that it completely stopped and now just shoots water filled peas so the whole thing bubbles up...

Jeff said:

These things are weird.....happened to glance up from what I was working on in the computer and was like...whoa...its flowing!!  Its like the lamp suddenly decided to "kick in" or something. 

[Jeff]

Mine actually seems to have straightened itself out.  The 3rd cycle took about 10 hrs, w/ pea shooting at around the 7.5 hr mark, then yesterday it was flowing when I got home at 7pm, meaning it was going in under 6 hrs!  Go figure.  Now tonight seemed to be about 8 hrs again to flowing.  Right now its flowing like a champ.  Normally I don't run the Grande's during the work week but I put this one on a timer coming on at 1pm to 1am so that I could cycle it w/o having to wait till the weekend again.

I don't mind if it takes 7-8 hrs to get going, the other one did too.  But that 2nd cycle when it was on for almost 12 hrs and was still pea shooting I thought I was doomed. I don't get how it can still take so long to warm up w/ the bulb up so close though. 

I will say though this too, this 2nd globe is crystal clear....the 1st one tends to cloud up a bit when its flowing, nothing bad, but it gets a bit hazy.  Almost looks like little white puffs of smoke in the fluid as its warming up.  This one was clear from the start and remains clear.  And these last few cycles once its going it flows just as good if not a tad better than the 1st one.  Seems to be more random...the 1st one pretty much cyclically columns, flows all to the top, then breaks up and rains down, repeat.  This one does that sometimes, other times its different sized blobs, sometimes thin snakes, that don't keep up until the whole blob of wax gets to the top, etc.  I'm happy with it, as long as it continues to behave :)  Maybe it just needed to be broken in. 

[Rodrigo]

I wouldn't mind if it takes long to go but two of my bulbs went out so I'm currently using the bulb from that lamp on my giant so I haven't ran it in about a week. Lava lite is out of stock on those for now but when I get some I'll get around to running this globe again and see if it improves on it's own.

[Brad]

it seems like the larger, single-coil spring design is too wide to produce good flow.  as the wax rises from the coil, it pinches off too early, resulting in "grapes and peas" as well call it.  with the addition of the smaller coil, the wax forms more of a cylindrical shape and the flow varies more.

what is interesting is that i think i read somewhere that the dual coil globe was actually a mistake at the factory, when actually it seems to be the correct thing to do!

my single coil lamp still shoots grapes, and i've run the crap out of it.  i also took the suggestion of running it for 4 days, then letting it simmer, cool, and start again.  still grapes.  i think i will put a second, smaller coil in it this weekend and see what happens.

[ChuckM]

My new Black Wizard seems to be very similar to my old Wizard. I think that it is really identical on the inside. Like most, I noticed that the globe that came with it not only takes a very long time to heat up, but the lava flow is pretty slow. Mostly just blobs. I took a cooking temperature probe and put it down inside the lamp, then at the top plane. Both the old and new wizard seem to have similar heat inside the lamp, so I am not sure there is a significant diffference... both seem to run in the 175-180'F range.

I am wondering now whether the globe issues are similar across all the range. I know folks are talking about the one vs two coils issue for the Grandes... I wonder if an additional small coil could help the Wizard? Has anyone tried this? I have an extra coil from an accent globe and was thinking of putting it in the new Wiz to see what happens. My only real concern is keeping the wax from sticking when I add it back to the globe. For folks who have added an extra coil to the Grande, what is your procedure that works?

[Jeff]

My replacement Grande has been flowing fine now w/ just the 1 coil, as well as my original 12 yr old that only had 1 coil.  Today will be the 7th cycle, and so far so good. The only poor one really was cycle 2 where it did nothing but pea shoot.  Then on the 3rd one it seemed to get "past" that and kicked in to good flow, and its been ok since.  Takes about 8 hrs to get going though. 

[Joanne]

I TOTALLY agree with you ! I remember seeing somewhere on here that someone said to twist the coil into a figure 8 . I bet that would work if you didnt have a spare 52oz coil !

Brad said:

it seems like the larger, single-coil spring design is too wide to produce good flow.  as the wax rises from the coil, it pinches off too early, resulting in "grapes and peas" as well call it.  with the addition of the smaller coil, the wax forms more of a cylindrical shape and the flow varies more.

what is interesting is that i think i read somewhere that the dual coil globe was actually a mistake at the factory, when actually it seems to be the correct thing to do!

my single coil lamp still shoots grapes, and i've run the crap out of it.  i also took the suggestion of running it for 4 days, then letting it simmer, cool, and start again.  still grapes.  i think i will put a second, smaller coil in it this weekend and see what happens.

[Brad]

joanne - after simmering the new globe a second time, it now flows wonderfully.  BUT, i've yet to cycle it because i'm afraid it will start shooting grapes again.  nothing else changed, not even ambient temperature.  it either needed a TON or time to break in, or the 2nd simmering fixed it.  only time will tell.